Hi. I want to start getting involved in the multimedia and graphics business so I've been doing a little research on which distro would make the best audio-video and graphics production studio and so far I've come up with Ubuntu Studio, 64Studio, ArtixtX, AV Linux and Musix. I must say I'm having a bit of a multiple dilemma here.

I'm inclined not to choose Ubuntu Studio because I read a lot of buggy problems related to it, and 64Studio since they are said to be lagging behind in development/support right now. As for the others, I can't say much about them. ArtistX looks impressive from looking at its website but I need to know the experience of other users.

I would like you to speak of your favourite distros, why and your experiences. A clear explanation of their pros and cons would be very appreciated.

I just use Dynebolic, because I respect the fact that it's done by one hacker in his room or whatever - I want to support him. He's also written some of the (very cool VJing) software in the distro. So I avoid the corporate distros like Ubuntu. Dynebolic has one GLARING problem - when you plug in a USB stick, the box that pops up asking you to mount it doesn't work. But otherwise it's so cool and lightweight, that I use it.

I've used Ubuntu Studio in the past, and it's been pretty good. I'm not sure what bugs you're referring to, but I never noticed any issues when I used it.

One other option is to set the system up yourself. For a multimedia box, usually you'll want a good selection of available software, such as Ardour, Rosegarden, etc. So make sure the distro you're starting from has the software available in its repositories. You'll also want to set up drivers such as Jack (if you're doing audio), which, in my experience, isn't too hard to set up. The toughest part is configuring the kernel's build to be ideal to your system. This usually means making it a realtime kernel and so forth.

It is a bit more work, but in the end you'll get a nice custom built system. Otherwise, I recommend Ubuntu Studio, which I've had good experience with, or 64studio, which is similar. The others I can't say anything about since I know nothing about them.